Survey: Students Less Tolerant

November 13, 1998

Tolerance of diversity is one of the values that seems to be waning among today's brightest students - almost half of the students, 48 percent, admit they are prejudiced against gays, up 19 percentage points from last year's survey.

Among the respondents, more boys than girls (23.7 percent to 11.4 percent) say they're ``very prejudiced'' against homosexuals, though 32.4 percent of both sexes say they are ``somewhat prejudiced.''

``It's surprising to see that so many young people who are so capable have such closed minds,'' said Joe Krouse, associate publisher of Who's Who Among American High School Students. ``Clearly we're falling down on the job of teaching tolerance to the next generation.''

Among other disturbing results: Eighty percent admit to having cheated in school, the highest percentage in the 29-year history of the survey. The Who's Who annual survey was conducted among 3,123 16- to 18-year-old students, all of whom have an ``A'' or ``B'' average.